1967 seat latch rebuild

[Keith B.]

I am restoring my seats. and putting the seat latches back together. I put it back like I found it using the parts that reusable. but the latch works really hard.

here are some pictures before and after

[Ken A.]

Re: 1967 seat latch rebuild

I've never found one that worked easy, they were/are a PITA.

[Keith B.]

Re: 1967 seat latch rebuild

It seems the springs are too heavy

[Gene M.]

Re: 1967 seat latch rebuild

Keith,
I've had the same issues you are finding. The original design is poor. The pressure angles of the link against the arms is far from tangential. Thus a lot of motion is lost and the force required is excessive. I made modifications to my seats mechanism by lengthening the lever arm so forces are normal with motion. This involves some fabrication and welding. The shaft the lever goes on is too short and does not fit the lever correctly. I also made new shafts too.

White grease helps too but not too much or it gets on everything. Mine work almost too easy, but better than the tight binding they were to start with.

[Michael M.]

[Keith B.]

Re: 1967 seat latch rebuild

I assembled them dry to make sure it was right. Then I was going to greese and lube it all up. I'm would hate to have it wrong and tare it up all full of greese.